Schools and Observatories

Provision of lecturing material for Scottish secondary schools

Astronomy is often a minor or even missing part of the standard school curriculum in many European countries. Obviously, astronomy needs to compete here with other physical disciplines which are equally important. However, astronomy is special in a way that it can teach us about very large and very small spatial scales and timescales; about light and particles; and about studying the universe with wavelengths our eyes can see or cannot see, without being able to touch the objects of study.
In 2015, a new curriculum for Advanced Higher Physics in Scottish secondary schools was released which includes, for the first time, stellar physics and general relativity.
In November 2015, PI Woitke was invited to provide in-service training for teachers (INSET meeting), reaching about 60 high-school physics teachers in Fife, Scotland. After the three training sessions, it became clear that the school teachers are right now looking actively for suitable lecturing material, so Woitke created this webpage. The link provides some selected lecturing material covering the sun, basic stellar parameters (stellar radius, luminosity, effective temperature, spectral flux, Stefan-Boltzmann law, apparent and absolute brightness), basic assumptions in stellar atmosphere and stellar structure theory, including nuclear fusion reactions, position and classification in the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram, as well as some insight into stellar evolution, final stages of stellar evolution, and the cosmic cycle of matter. It includes a selection of simple astronomical questions about stars and provides answers in an extra document.